Colour, Material and Form.
At Sancal, we have always understood design as experimentation, a place where shapes, textures, and colours converse freely. This philosophy has found new resonance in a unique collaboration between Elmo, the Swedish tannery renowned for its sustainable approach and refined materials; Tekla Evelina Severin, the colourist and designer known simply as Teklan; and Sancal, whose sculptural furniture became the canvas for this creative dialogue.
The collaboration was presented at COLAB, Sancal’s showroom in Madrid, with Teklan travelling from Stockholm to join the event and share insights into her creative process. The pieces will remain on display at the showroom and can be visited by appointment.
The collaboration was born to celebrate the renewal of Elmonordic, Elmo’s iconic collection of leathers. Teklan was invited to reimagine its colour palette, keeping ten timeless neutrals while revitalising twenty shades with a more expressive and optimistic tone. The result is a chromatic universe that feels both grounded and exuberant. A reflection of Teklan’s signature style, where pastels meet intensity and calm meets vitality.
To present the new palette, Teklan created a series of vibrant sets featuring Sancal furniture upholstered in Elmonordic leathers. Around these pieces, she also displayed wall artworks made from leather monoblocks, exploring the dialogue between 2D and 3D, between flat colour and tactile volume. As she explains, the wall pieces show the interaction between the three-dimensional and two-dimensional perception of colour and surfaces, and also the way light transforms colour across surfaces and volumes.”
The Language of Colour.
“Why I am interested in colours? I guess I am so intrigued because it’s so powerful. Colour is the first thing you react to, and it immediately makes you feel something. At the same time, it’s so relative, the lighting, the surroundings, and other colours around it define it too.”
Teklan’s approach to colour is instinctive and emotional rather than theoretical. She never studied conventional colour theory; instead, she works through mood and atmosphere. Her palette is guided by how spaces feel rather than how they should look. This sensitivity comes, in part, from her background in photography, a discipline that taught her how light shapes perception.
“Photography helped me to understand how light can completely change a colour and with it, the entire mood of a space.”
From colour blocks to subtle shades.
In her creative process, Teklan explores both contrast and continuity. On one side, she plays with bold mix and match combinations, those unexpected blocks of colour that define her aesthetic. On the other, she enjoys working shade on shade, creating smooth transitions that feel calm and immersive.
“I like to combine the flirty with the dirty,” she said. To find harmony between something vibrant and something grounded. They shouldn’t work together, but they do.
In this a renewed Elmonordic palette, this balance comes to life: airy blues meet warm reds with an orange undertone, luminous greens blend with serene neutrals. Each colour becomes a personality on its own, yet part of a collective story.
Against conformity.
For Teklan, colour is also a statement against sameness. “There’s a lot of conformity in design, and I try to break that by introducing new perspectives and combinations,” she says.
Her work is an invitation to rediscover emotion through colour, to look beyond trends and rediscover the joy of visual curiosity. You can read more about the collaboration here.
Updating a classic collection like Elmonordic meant balancing innovation with heritage. The result is a spectrum that feels contemporary yet enduring, designed not to dictate a style, but to inspire infinite interpretations.
Visit by appointment. Contact Irene Ortega (iortega@sancal.com).
Event images courtesy of Elmo.
Expo images by Manu Toro (@manutoro.work)
